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Reflection of
Nidhin Devassia
Today’s gospel reminds us about the greatness of the vocation
to the priesthood. Jesus gives the disciples the power to forgive the sins.
This is the first duty of a priest, to do the sacraments specially the
sacrament of penance. The disciples received this power only when the Holy
Spirit came upon them. This we see in the first chapter of Acts of the
Apostles. From the human point the disciples are weak and they are
afraid(Jn.20:19), But the Holy Spirit strengthens them and gives them the power
to proclaim the Good News and to forgive the sins. In St. John Mary Vianney’s
words “they became the men who is invested with all the powers of God”
(reflections on the priesthood by St. John Mary Vianney).
This is the beauty of this vocation; even though we are unworthy and weak Jesus called us and strengthens us. It is a gratuities gift from God. It is a treasure given in a clay jar. “We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us” (2 cor. 4:7).
Gospel Sharing
- Reflection of Carlos
Pezaña Avenido
When Jesus ascended into heaven, He entrusted His
ministries to His disciples, i.e. to continue to preach the Word of God and to
evangelize the people to know Him as Lord and Savior.
In the Gospel, Jesus prayed for the unity of His
people, that the people may know Him, may believe in Him and love Him so that
the unity between God and His people maybe complete. Complete in the sense that
the people may learn to offer their lives to God and live with Him for the rest
of their lives. In other words, to become united with Him.
Hence, this was the mission of the first apostles of
Jesus Christ. After Christ ascended into heaven, the apostles continue to
preach the Gospel not only in their respective places but also to the
neighboring countries and later to the four corners of the world. They spent
their entire lives to spread the Christianity all over the whole world.
If we put this Gospel into our context, we as
aspired and willing to follow the Lord must learn to offer ourselves to Him.
The priests, nuns, bishops, deacons, religious, etc. are the successors of the
first apostles of Christ. They are continuing the works of the apostles, i.e.
to unite the people of God.
We, as novices of the Stigmatine Congregation, are
taught a lot of things; how to evangelize the people depending on our charism
as “apostolic missionaries for the service of the bishops”. We are not true
Stigmatines yet but our daily schedules, our activities, and daily hard works
are the steps already of becoming true Stigmatines.
The motto of the Congregation “euntes docete” which
means “go and preach” is very suitable of what the Gospel is telling us today.
Every Stigmatine priests and brothers are called to “go into the whole world
and proclaim the Good News”. Filipino Stigmatines are not just called to preach
in the Philippines, Indian Stigmatines are not just called to preach in India,
Thai Stigmatines are not just called to preach in Thailand, the same is true
with the other Stigmatines all over the world. Hence, every Stigmatines are called
to preach into the four corners of the world.
That is why we are here my co- novices, we are being
prepared for the greater things ahead, i.e. to go and preach. This is what St.
Gaspar Bertoni wants us to do, to guide all Catholics to become united with
Christ. So, let us help one another so that every one of us here may become
worthy instrument and example to all the believers of Jesus Christ.
Gospel of Mark 9:14-29
- Reflection of Louie Aninion
The Gospel of Mark chapter
9:14-29 reminds us two great lessons in Christian life i.e. the power of faith
and prayer and the relationship of faith and prayer.
Recalling some spoken
words of Jesus to the man who reported Him about the condition of his son,
“What an unbelieving lot of you.” For me it a dismayed reaction of Jesus to His
disciples who journey with Him for long time and yet, still, there is room of
doubts in their hearts that God can really cast out bad spirit from the
possessed boy.
Before Jesus performed
the healing, He said to the father “Everything is possible to a man who trust.”
The man replied “I do believe! Help my lack of faith.” then Jesus healed the
boy.
This proves that faith
in God really works wonders and everything will be possible especially so when
we acknowledge it and profess it in our day to day living. Thus, we must have a
full trust in Him. We should not give any space in our hearts any doubts when
we face some tribulations in our life. Always believe that God is there ready
to help us anytime.
After that incident the
disciples asked Jesus privately “Why is it that we could not expel it?” He said
to them, “This kind you can drive out only by prayer.”
Here we can observe the
connection of faith in prayer or vice versa. We cannot say that we have Faith
in God and yet we don’t pray – we never attend mass. We cannot say also that
God is there in us always because we always pray. Your prayer life is not the
basis that God favors you always and yet you never act according to His will.
It should corresponds into our action the prayer and faith that we have in God.
Or else we are just fake believers merely doing lips service.
This things is lived
and practiced by Jesus… we can see one episode in Mark 1:13 that He always find
time to pray to His Father above before and after of His ministry. Here Jesus
spent forty days and nights in the wilderness, put to the test there by Satan.
Jesus driven out Satan in that place because of this – faith and prayer. With
this, I remember someone said that faith should be rooted in Prayer.
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